Background

Cargo handling is a 24/7 industry, with ground services, air transport, oceanic shipping, and more all happening around the clock. While it is common for cargo facilities and ports to run 24/7 or close at night, it is less common for part of a cargo facility to temporarily close at night while operations in other areas remain operational. This setup has not been significantly researched and therefore remains unoptimised. Such a facility setup exists at KLM Cargo
facilities at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, where one of its three cargo terminals temporarily closes while the other two remain open throughout the night, causing operational inefficiencies.

System analysis

Terminal 1 (T1) at KLM Cargo’s primary facilities handles the airline’s express shipments (XPS), but is subject to nightly closures, requiring express products delivered at night to temporarily be stored at Terminal 3 (T3), which primarily handles general cargo exports, until T1 reopens in the morning. This leads to several inefficiencies and problems, including XPS packages frequently being delayed and missing early morning flights due to not being transferred and sorted in time after T1 reopens, as well as XPS packages impacting the general cargo operations at T3.

In this project, presented by the Business Process and Improvement (BPI) department at KLM Cargo, the XPS package processes were mapped, analysed, and redesigned in order to optimise the cargo delivery process during the night and eliminate operational inefficiencies and hindrances within the current setup. This was achieved through a variety of methods, including literature research, data analysis, in-person observations, interviews, and discrete-event simulation modelling.

Future requirements analysis

Many stakeholders are interested in seeing the current process revitalised and replaced with a new process that ensures XPS packages are sorted sooner, do not get lost, are prioritised better, and reduce the impact on T3 operations. It is also important that the project satisfies all safety and security requirements, fits within the physical spaces of the terminal floor plan, and falls within the monetary limits of the company.

Design solution

The newly proposed design involves installing automated drop-off machines in the walls of T1 that connect to scanning technology and subsequently feed directly into the sorting machine within T1. This allows XPS packages that are cleared and ready to be shipped to directly enter the sorting machine of T1 instead of waiting at T3 until the morning. Additionally, holding bins allow some XPS packages to be set aside should the system detect potential safety and security risks that require additional human checks. The primary goal of the new solution is to reduce the average amount of time XPS packages take from the moment they arrive on the premises to the moment they are inserted into the sorting machine, while also removing as many XPS packages from T3 at night as possible.

Results

Discrete-event simulation (DES) models were used to replicate both the current and proposed systems. The model for the new process tested various percentage combinations of XPS packages that were either accepted directly or stored in a temporary holding bin awaiting additional checks in the morning. Data provided by KLM Cargo included values for the interarrival times of trucks carrying XPS shipments at night, as well as the number of packages arriving, allowing for accurate data-based representations of the processes. The simulations produced several outputs for both the current and proposed processes, including average XPS flow times, average times at which the first XPS package entered the sorter, and the average number of packages entering the sorter before T1 reopened. These results were compared between the two systems to support conclusions and recommendations.

Discussion and recommendations

The results obtained from the DES simulations indicate that an automated drop-off system can significantly improve the operations and execution of the night-time cargo delivery process for express shipments at T1. The results show that having at least 15% of night-time XPS arrivals directly accepted into the sorter during the night is sufficient to surpass the current system in performance. Additionally, the results support the notion that the more XPS packages are directly inserted into the sorter, the less impact and fewer problems arise in T3 operations during the night. It is therefore strongly recommended that KLM Cargo continues development and research aimed at turning this drop-off proposal into reality.